Gothenburg, Sweden – August 26, 2015

Integration Police Inspector Ulf Boström from Gothenburg addressed the 35,000 Muslims in London in late August. Millions saw him on television.

- It is urgent to talk about what happens in Pakistan, he said.

On 21-23 August, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community's annual convention, Jalsa Salana took place in London. There was integration Police Inspector Ulf Boström from Gothenburg invited to speak in front of 35,000 people. A large part of his speech was devoted to criticizing religious laws in Pakistan, from where many Ahmadiyya Muslims comes from.

- They go against international law, the UN conventions and human rights. Pakistan has created hatred laws, says Boström.

- If you as Ahmadi call yourself a Muslim, call your mosque a mosque or pray as a Muslim you can get three years in prison and fines.

It has for many years been reports of persecution and violence against the Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan. In 2010 at least 70 people were killed in attacks on two mosques belonging to the Muslim minority. When applying for a passport you must sign on application form that the founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, is a false prophet, which, among others, the BBC previously reported.

- And the same applies to vote, says Amer Munir Chaudhry, National Director of Public Relations for the Ahmadiyya Community in Sweden.

Ulf Boström chose to speak on Pakistani law because he believes that the world needs to wake up.

- When it comes to countries that are at war or civil war, it is difficult to do something, but when a country which is member of the UN and create laws to persecute its own people - that we can do something about. To do so, we must also talk about it, he says, and continues:

- These laws are criminal. If one citizen of Sweden commits a crime against someone because you hate that person's political ideas, religious affiliation or sexual orientation, so surely the punishment is harder – but in Pakistan it is the opposite. They have created laws that promote hatred.

That you as Ahmadi is not allowed to call yourself Muslim, and even branded as "non-Muslim", Boström considers this to be "very serious".

- It should be seen in the same way as when you put a yellow star on the Jews in Germany in 1939, he says.

To understand what is going on in Pakistan you need a certain background knowledge, says Boström.

- In the mid-70s the Saudi king and the former Libyan dictator Ghadaffi traveled to different countries and visited Pakistan. Shortly after this, the Government of Pakistan declared Ahmadi Muslims as non-Muslims, and in 1984 laws were passed against them, he says.

Since then a large number of Ahmadiyya Muslims has fled from Pakistan. Two of them are Amer Munir Chaudhry’s parents who came to Sweden in the mid 1970s.

- The situation is very difficult in Pakistan right now. Just last week a man was murdered in his pharmacy clinic. He was shot by eleven shots of the four people who later shouted that they killed an infidel, a blasphemer, says Chaudhry.

He says that the reaction after Boström's speech, which was also a television broadcast of the Convention which was seen by over 100 million people worldwide, was very positive.

- Many international leaders comes to the Jalsa convention and talk a little bit about it, but nobody dares to openly criticize and say that it is time to do something. Ulf is well among the first to have done so. He devoted much of his time to criticize the persecution that forced 100,000's of Pakistanis fleeing.

Boström concludes:

- Ahmadiyya Muslims are dying right now. The world must speak about it.

Fact: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

About 160 million people profess the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith around the world. In Pakistan it is about approximately four million people and there are congregations in 207 countries.

In Sweden there are five branches and Nasir Mosque in Gothenburg was the first mosque built in the country.

Founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in India in 1835. He claimed to be the promised Messiah, which other faiths do not recognize. Thus they are the only community that has a caliph since Ghulam Ahmad passed away in 1908.

Ahmadi Muslims follow, like other Muslims, the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Their motto is "Love for all, hatred for none."

Source: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Sweden.